There are three primary driving forces for today's implantable biomedical devices increased functionality, enhanced reliability, and a reduction in product size. The advent of the hybrid microcircuit has been one of the major contributors to meeting all of these requirements, thus enabling the development of sophisticated implantable products which are truly physiologically compatible in terms of product size.
A problem exists in the pacemaker field in that currently available pacemaker designs utilize discrete substrates and lids to protect and enclose microcircuit components. Furthermore, the pacemaker assembly employs flexible interconnect circuitry to connect the microcircuit components in the electronic package to the pacemaker battery and output feedthroughs. The assembly of such a pacemaker consequently requires accurate placement of several discrete structures which is costly to assemble and difficult to automate.
Another problem of the prior art pacemaker is that design changes during the qualification and testing phases of pacemaker development often necessitate adding additional components. In many cases, these components circuitry due to the lack of flexible interconnect circuitry due to the lack of real estate on the hybrid substrate, which significantly complicates the assembly of the pacemaker and potentially decreases the reliability of the system.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a new and improved electronics package that combines the functions of the hybrid lid and the flexible interconnect circuit into a single structure.
It is also an objective of the present invention to provide an interconnect structure which can easily add electronic components without complicating the assembly operations of the pacemaker.
It is another objective to provide a pacemaker which has significantly improved reliability, and is easily manufactured at a reduction of cost.